Lots of history and a mad Gorilla

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Scott and I spent a lovely spring Bank Holiday weekend in Berlin; it was my second visit to this vibrant city. We had an early morning start from T5 which is a fantastic airport, mind you we didn’t check in any luggage. On arrival our first stop was the Pergamonmuseum, there were queues down to the river so we flagged that idea and headed to a river side café for a long lunch. It was a themed place based on the East German stop/go light men, they are rather famous as they are fun little cubby characters that the pubic demanded stayed after unification. That afternoon we did the 4hr walking tour taking in the greatest highlights the city had to offer. The Jewish memorial had just opened, that was a highlight for me as the last time I was there it was just a big hole. After the walk we headed to the famous Aldon Hotel at the Brandenburge Gate for a drink, this was the hotel where Michael Jackson did the old baby dangle a few years back now. That evening we went to the buzzing area of Oranienburger, it was happy hour heaven.

The following day we went out to Potsdam on another walking tour. We visited the spy bridge and strolled through a lovely park with nude jugglers, there is a rather large naturalist movement in Germany. There was a Tudor style palace where some of the big meetings took place between England, America and Russia after WW2. In fact the royals in Germany loved to build in different styles there was a pyramid, Nordic, Dutch, Russian, ancient Greek architecture, crazy but it kind of suited the area. A lot of the large buildings had not been fully restored yet as Potsdam was on the East German side. The tour ended at the Schloss Sanssouci where we saw a grave of a king, people placed potatoes on it as a sign of respect. He was the man that introduced and showed the people that the potatoe was ok to eat, before this the population was suspicious because it grew under ground. On return we went to the Reichstag for sunset, there have been some amazing new buildings go up around the parliament, which would have been the old death zone. That evening we headed back to the same area as the previous evening, we ended up staying in a bar chatting to some older American folks who lived in Germany, it was a good hoot.

Our last day in the city we went back to the Pergamonmuseum and walked straight in no queues, great! The highlight was the Islamic Art rooms and also a special exhibition they had called Museums; projects, concept, space. It was really cool, showcasing all the amazing new museums popping up around the world. After that we headed to check out the Check Point Charlie out door displays and then visited the out door exhibition on the SS terror, chilling reading. We then strolled, in sunshine, to Potsdamen Platz, the new area that has been built up the old death zone. Then it was off to the Zoo, the highlight of that little excursion was the Gorillas. The alpha male didn’t take a liking to Scott and charged at him throwing a half eaten leek and some mud! Lucky for Scott the Gorilla had bad aim and the leek went sailing past his right ear … I had already taken off at pace in the other direction.

We had a very German meal in a Beer Garden. And then before heading to the airport we had a quick coffee with Steph my good friend from volunteering in India 2 years ago, it was lovely to see her. And that was the end of our Bank Holiday in Berlin

Photos

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